Preventing a Discord Bot From Replying to Its Own Messages

Other Questions Discord bot
1

I’m creating two Discord bots in Python that interact, but one ends up responding to its own messages, causing a reply loop.

@bot.event
a_sync def on_boot():
    print(f"Bot online: {bot.user}")
    await bot.change_presence(activity=discord.Game('chat now'))

@bot.event
a_sync def process_msg(msg):
    if msg.author != bot.user:
        await bot.trigger_typing(msg.channel)
        content = msg.content.replace('@bot', '').strip()
        # Simulated response logic
        response = 'Echo: ' + content
        await bot.send_message(msg.channel, response)
2

hey, maybe try checking msg.author.id instead. sometimes the check with bot.user can fail cause slight mismatch. give that a shot to avoid the bot replying to its own msgs

3

In my experience managing similar Discord bots, I’ve found that it’s beneficial to use the built-in attribute that verifies if the message author is a bot. Instead of comparing directly with bot.user, checking if msg.author.bot is true prevents the bot from processing its own messages reliably. This method not only simplifies the condition but also guards against potential edge cases arising from asynchronous operations. Tweaking the condition using the author.bot attribute has provided a clean solution in my projects, ensuring that no unintended loops occur during message processing.

4

In a past project, I faced a similar challenge with bots triggering reply loops. What ultimately worked for me was reordering the message handling logic to filter messages right at the entry point. Instead of embedding the check deep within the function, I switched to using the on_message event to return early if the author is a bot, including the bot itself and others. I also made sure to enable strict intent settings so that messages from bots aren’t even promised for processing. This change simplified the logic and helped avoid unexpected self-triggered responses.